DC Store Championship: cocky, unlucky and bloodied

Following a rather light prep-schedule, Ayon, Brian and Gavin attended Labyrinth's Store Championship in DC yesterday. In all, 20 players participated in the event, 5 players dropped out by the end of the fifth and final round of swiss, and team HOBO left feeling somewhat unsatisfied by its performance.

Ayon placed last* with his Bara Knights of the Realm deck, with an emphasis on shadows and stability over hard-on rush. While this deck has struggled to find its footing against a few top builds this season, it really didn't help that Ayon's first opponent was cheating and no one caught it till the end of the game. (drawing 3 cards whenever Ayon had fewer Knights during the draw phase is an interesting re-write of the KoR agenda but certainly not what it does) Play errors aside, the day put an end to Ayon's love affair with Black Cells. They just don't provide enough control for what they cost their own deck in speed and gold. (and are especially ineffective amongst most Hobo decks in local play)

Brian placed 3rd** with his fairly unique self-mil Bara Recursion build. Of the three of us, Brian probably had the least to learn from the experience, as he lost to 2 time-outs and against a Stark Siege Epic hyper rush deck that stomps anything short of hyper control or hyper counter rush. The first time out was particularly annoying because he had a guaranteed win the next round.

Gavin placed 5th** with his Stark Song of Winter shadows deck. Like Brian, Gavin did well against everything except the Siege deck that ultimately took the championship. Unfortunately, Gavin and Brian had to face off in 5th swiss, which is usually a sign that Gavin will draw >2 economy cards over the course of 5 rounds. (Additionally, Gavin forgot Rule by Decree was in Brian's plot deck and missed a chance to play nightmares and even both player's hands pre-plot) At least the last minute addition of 3 Parting Blows worked as well as Gavin expected, providing unexpected advantage against Lannister removal and his Bara/Martell opponents during first snow of winter.

In closing, HOBO came away with a few thoughts for our own Store Championship. First, we won't be requiring deck lists because they just slow down the registration process. Second, we will do our best to prevent meta-mate match ups. Not only is it really annoying to drive an hour+ to an event and then have 1-3/5 of your games be against the people you play with every week, it's also not very instructive or illuminating about the state of the larger meta. Lastly, given the lower 'prestige' of winning a store title vs a regional, we saw too many early bail outs by players who knew they would not make the cut to the final tables. So we've decided to format 4 rounds of swiss, with a cut to top 8. (this will also give us more time to host the draft event for anyone not making the final tables)

*Technically 2nd to last, but the last place player bailed after the 4th round of swiss.

**Technically I don't know, since at least two of the top players dropped out by the 4th round of swiss.

Baltimore Winter Season flyer

Baltimore's Store Championship (and casual pre-tourney events) flyer. I'm looking forward to championship this year -- CC has been very supportive and, now that Draft is a thing again, even if I dont make it to the final tables, I will have something to do -- and can do it at 20% off ;)

Store Championship season mini poster (MD/VA area)

In addition to the normal prize pool, the Baltimore Meta will design a for fun (read: not tourney legal) champion card with our March 16th Tourney Champion. Examples of our Fan cards can be seen below on this blog.

Decks By Democracy: Issue 2

Freezerburn: A Stark Burn Retrospective

Welcome back to Decks By Democracy. With the release of the new FAQ and then our local Regional fast approaching, the second deck to be built for this column got a bit delayed. Nonetheless, as promised, the deck has been completed and I'm here to talk about it finally. This time the challenge was to build a non-Targaryen burn deck. So without further delay, allow me to introduce Freezerburn.

House:
House Stark

Agenda:
The Maester's Path

Plots:Valar Morghulis (Core) x1
At the Gates (GotC) x1
The Minstrel's Muse (RotO) x1
Forging the Chain (FtC) x1
A Time for Ravens (ACoS) x1
The Winds of Winter (TWoW) x1
Threat From the North (PotS) x1

Characters (27):
Maester of the Last Hearth (HtS) x3
Maester Vyman (TWoW) x1
Lyanna Stark (ODG) x1
Qhorin Halfhand (LoW) x1
Septa Mordane (AToT) x1
Wyman Manderly (RotK) x1
Maester Aemon (Core) x1
Oldtown Scholar (FtC) x3
Arya Stark (tHoBaW) x3
Eddard Stark (TTotH) x1
Hodor (Core) x1
Hungry Mob (CoS) x3
Old Nan (BoRF) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (PotS) x1
Ser Kyle Condon (APS) x1
Oldtown Advisor (GotC) x2
Maester Luwin (FtC) x1
Sansa Stark (TftRK) x1

Locations (13):
Great Keep (Core) x3
Lord Eddard's Chambers (Core) x1
Narrow Sea (Core) x3
Northern Fiefdoms (Core) x3
The Last River (TftH) x1
Street of Steel (Core) x1
Shadowblack Lane (Core) x1

Attachments (22):
Pale Steel Link (FtC) x2
Bronze Link (FtC) x2
Valyrian Steel Link (HtS) x2
Lead Link (CbtC) x3
Apprentice Collar (GotC) x3
Copper Link (GotC) x2
Greyscale (tHoBaW) x3
White Raven (TWoW) x1
The Long Winter (ACoS) x2
Grey Wind (LoW) x2

Events (3):
At Night They Howl (LoW) x3

Synopsis:
Burn can be rough outside of Targaryen. Most of the other houses don't have much, but in looking through Stark I found a couple, most notably The Long Winter. Of course the next logical step was to include Maesters, as the lead links create huge flamethrowers quickly. The added benefit being that Maester of the Last Hearths can save creatures in Winter (which you'll need it to be to make The Long Winter work), giving some added fun with Copper Links. All that's left is something to make the burn terminal. For this we have 3 different things: Grey Wind, who can kill anyone once they've been sufficiently burnt to 1 or less, Threat From the North, and Greyscale, which will discard them and can be played for free with the Pale Steel Link. Build up Aemon and the Maester of the Last Hearths, then crank out the burn. In case of valar or target kill, there's a lot of easy saving available too.

Characters:
I started with lots of maesters, of course. The Maester of the Last Hearths are explained above, and Aemon is around for the same self-saving reasons. Luwin and Vyman are auto-includes, and a pair of Oldtown Advisors gives a little bit of cancel. Rounded out with the weenies maesters, just to ensure we have one around at all times. Arya and Wyman Manderly become even more useful than normal with the heavy burn going on, leaving most characters vulnerable to their abilities. Lyanna Stark adds another layer of -1 to non-uniques when knelt, rendering a generous amount of non-uniques useless, especially during Winds of Winter and Threat From the North rounds. Septa Mordane is a nice counter to shadows decks should you run across them, or just a cheap unique character to sacrifice to trigger Arya if not. Eddard Stark and Kyle Condon add a little bit of supplemental draw should you need it, and the rest are just in there because they're cheap and good for their cost. Just be careful with Jorah during the Threat From the North round.



Locations:
All production, with the exception of a little bit of extra burn with The Last River. Pretty straightforward.


Attachments:
So many attachments! Since the lead links are powered by chains, I've included 2-3 of every chain I use on the agenda. Apprentice Collars protect your maesters from burn, make spare maesters, and cost 0 for the Forging the Chain round. Copper Links make creatures for the +1 bonus or saving ability of the Master of the Last Hearths. Pale Steel Link and Bronze Link allow you to recur the chains that do end up discarded, as well as cycling the Greyscales for quick reuse. Pale Steel Link also has the benefit of being able to put into play more than 1 limited card a round for accelerated setup early game. Draw is important, so I have 2 Valyrian Steel Links as well. In the non-chain attachment area, I have 2 of Grey Wind because terminal effects are important, just like Greyscale (which I have 3 of since they are non-unique). And of course The Long Winter. This card is amazing for this deck, giving almost all of your opponent's characters -1 all the time! Note there's only 1 White Raven. This is because with Pale Steel Link and Bronze Link, 1 is all you need to win the season battle.


Events:Only 3 copies of At Night They Howl. These take advantage of the Copper Links as well, allowing you to use your maesters multiple times over the course of a Threat From the North round, or just to use  Greyscale multiple times, or for extra attacks. The options are vast for what you can do when re-standing linked maesters.


Plots:
Two tutor plots to get the game started. Get yourself Aemon or a Maester of the Last Hearth turn 1 with At the Gates, and then A Time for Ravens on turn 2 to make it winter and turn on your saves and hopefully The Long Winter. After that it's a couple of plots to spam burn across all your opponent's characters, Forging the Chain to recur some chains should you lose some, Valar Morghulis just in case, and The Minstrel's Muse for a quick power rush (another use for At Night They Howl, as multi-chained maesters with Apprentice Collars win dominance easily) or just for the gold if you need some quick board presence but are light on production.


So there you have it: Freezerburn in all it's glory.  It's not the strongest deck I've ever made, but it's a lot of fun and it's surprisingly stable. Once all the pieces are in order, it is pretty much unstoppable.

Voting for the next deck will be starting soon at a post to be made this week. Here's the link to the voting thread: http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7371-decks-by-democracy/

A Game of What Ifs: Hound of the Hearth

Originally, I set aside 3 of 20 cards slots for attachments in the House Umber fan expansion CP. Unfortunately, "Loyalty Bought with Fingers" and "Frostbite" (a Stark only winter-burn card) never came together.

Provided your opponent doesn't discard it first, Hound of the Hearth gives you a few obvious advantages. First, neither the Hound nor the attached character (or 'leash holder') need to kneel and/or be standing to trigger the Hound's effect. Not only does this effect combo with character like Brutish Drunk but, like the melee keyword version of the Greatjon, it bypasses House Umber's intrigue icon weakness. The kill effect is just gravy at that point.

Bonus points to anyone running Old Nan, as that would allow you to force an opponent's character to participate in a challenge, say, when you were running a character with deadly.

The question is, as with all fan cards: is Hound of the Hearth too powerful? Should the kill effect be a second triggered effect, requiring a discard? That would give the player a choice to make -- possibly a tough choice given how good they both could be. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Decks By Democracy: Issue 1

A Flaying is Coming: A Bolton Deckbuilding Retrospective

A little while back, I got a bug and decided that I wanted to build a new deck, but I had a very hard time deciding what deck I wanted to build. I chose for my solution to go to the cardgamedb.com message boards and post up a topic asking for people to vote on which deck I should next build (the thread can be found here: http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4521-next-deck-to-build/ )
Thus was born Decks By Democracy, my monthly posting about a deck type decided by voting and how/what I did to make it. Though I’ve already gotten my next build voted upon, I’m going back this issue to the first one I did, a Bolton HoD: Dreadfort deck. So here’s A Flaying is Coming, and some insight into why.

House:
House Stark

Agenda:
House of Dreams

Plots:
After the Mummer’s Ford (KotS) x1
Assault on King’s Landing (KotStorm) x1
Fury of the Wolf (AE) x1
Manning the City Walls (CD) x1
Storm of Swords (LoW) x1
The Minstrell’s Muse (RotO) x1
Valar Morghulis (Core) x1

Characters (33):Bolton Refugee (RW) x3
Brienne of Tarth (PotS) x1
Catelyn Stark (LoW) x1
Damon Dance-For-Me (VD) x1
Jory Cassel (CB) x1
King Robb’s Host (W5K) x1
Maester Luwin (FtC) x1
Maester Vyman (TWoW) x1
Meera Reed (TftH) x1
Northern Cavalry Flank (SA) x3
Old Nan (BRF) x1
Reek (MotM) x1
Roose Bolton (DB) x1
Sansa Stark (TftRK) x1
Ser Jorah Mormont (PotS) x1
Ser Kyle Condon (APS) x1
Steelshanks Reserves (ASoS) x3
The Bastard of Bolton (IG) x1
The Bastard’s Boys (ARotD) x3
The Bastard’s Elite (RoR) x3
The Flayed Men (DB) x3

Locations (19):Abandoned Fort (RoR) x2
Bay of Ice (KotS) x3
Great Keep (LoW) x3
Harrenhal (ODG) x1
Lord Eddard’s Chambers (LoW) x1
Narrow Sea (KotStorm) x3
Northern Fiefdoms (LoW) x3
Street of Sisters (Core) x1
Street of Steel (LoW) x1
The Dreadfort (DB) x1 (played with Agenda)

Attachments (0):
n/a

Events (9):
Die by the Sword (LoW) x3
The Price of War (KotS) x3
To Be A Wolf (SB) x3

Synopsis:
At its root, this is a basic aggro deck. You want to control the board, wiping characters as often as possible. With a very low cost curve and high strength characters, it is generally easy to force an early Valar, which (more often than not) you can come back from a lot faster than the enemy. You want to go first every turn, and between events and claim, manage their characters pretty effectively. The land destruction combined with easy-to-win elevated claim challenges means even Greyjoy will have a hard time keeping up.

Character Base:
A lot of obvious choices. You want a lot of Boltons so the all-important Bastard’s Boys can come out as cheaply as possible, and you want most of them above 3 strength, so you can draw frequently off of the primary draw-engine: The Dreadfort. Now, I see a lot of players using Bolton Loyalists in their Bolton decks, and as you’ve noticed, I do not use them at all instead opting for Steelshanks Reserves. So long as you you can go first they’ll be strong War-Crested characters, and when they come back to your control, you get to draw for them! This maximizes the effectiveness of Dreadfort without having to lose a challenge. I could have included the Loyalists as well, but as intrigue is the weakest icon type in this deck, I didn’t feel they were worth it, and opted for more efficient non-Bolton support instead.

Locations:
Mostly just production cards, but with a couple extras thrown in. Bay of Ice may seem like overkill on draw, but as going first is key, initiative is crucial. Most of the plots already have high initiative, so at 0 cost, Bay of Ice is a pretty ideal fit, and will usually keep you on the top end of initiative. The extra draw for those times you don’t get Boltons is icing. The Abandoned Forts serve a double purpose. On the one hand, you don’t want your opponent having Boltons because you want The Bastard’s Boys ability going strong. In addition, if you’re doing your job right and keeping all your Boltons yourself, Old Nan can make an attacking opponent character a Bolton and then bounce them right back to hand. Just a little bit of challenge control.
Harrenhal is just a the cherry on top. It’s hard to underestimate the usefulness of this card in a deck that will be killing characters often, but even so, it isn’t strictly necessary. I have occasionally switched it out for a Crown of Winter to boost Meera and protect a character.

Attachments:None. Who needs ‘em? Except for Crown of Winter on occasion.

Events:While overall event light, they are all crucial. The Price of War and Die by the Sword are obvious, and To Be A Wolf is both one of the best tutors in the game, and allows you to reuse The Bastard’s Boys to max out claim even if it’s cancelled.

Plots:
High initiative is the name of the day. Aside from that, multiple military challenges means you can easily get up to 6 military claim over a phase with To Be A Wolf and Bastard’s Boys. The plot everyone seems to question is Assault on King’s Landing. Well, for one, it’s a military challenge, so if your game goes to turn 8, you still have one in your used pile for To Be A Wolf. Secondly, if used properly, it cuts through Greyjoy’s resilience by butter. And it has 5 initiative, which is fine by me!

Well, that’s all for this month folks. Feel free to comment on the deck or ask any questions! I’ll be back in a couple weeks at most with my next deck: A Stark Maester Burn.

Off the beaten path: Kingsmoot

This week's Off the Beaten Path is dedicated to AGoT's Kingsmoot variant. However, I must first make an embarrassing admission: I've never played it. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone else playing it either. This reality may illustrate two significant challenges for AGoT and rules writing in general.

The first and obvious challenge: if rules are purely optional AND require additional work to facilitate, no one will play them -- and Kingsmoot stumbles on both of these points. Not only are its rules unsupported by official play, you will need to build a new and fairly specific melee format deck to do well at it. 

Second: Kingsmoot rules, by their very nature, adding 'more rules' to the game. 

Together, these issues are not unlike the woes we all face with the first CP of each cycle. Naval enhancements are interesting, but are they worth the effort to get working? Will they clutter the errata list and scare away yet more new players? At least those mechanics are tourney legal...

In principle, Kingsmoot is quite interesting. Like Civil war, it supports up to 6 players, which is a great boon for 6 player casual metas and, possibly, retail spaces alike. Additionally, as they have no support/oppose concept, Kingmoot's Titles are probably easier for new players to understand. However, this simplification is a catch 22, as it results in some cards (admittedly only a small few) having meaningless wording in the format.

In practice I can't imagine Kingsmoot working well at all. Without supporting Titles, no player is ever safe and since 'winning' is dictated by the number of Titles you control (semi in addition to collecting 15 power) it only emphasizes the advantage of going last and/or forcing the earlier players to over manage the later players to prevent them sweeping the board. In short, the poor player decisions that already throw a standard melee format into the non competitive pile are probably worse here.

Unlike Hand of the King, Kingsmoot doesn't lend itself to use as an Agenda ...but maybe,

given the Character-Title coming up in the currently cycle, maybe we'll see something like them in the future. Who knows? House Frey characters that lend their owner title-like effects when you reach certain achievements has some appeal...

What do you think? Does Kingsmoot deserve more play? Do you think we'll see more kingsmoot-like titling in the rumored revised Core set maybe.maybe not due later this year? Say your piece in the comments below.